• Home
  • About
  • Larder
    • What We Eat
  • Library
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Recipes
    • Videos
  • Gym
    • Competitive Sport
    • Motivation
  • Services
  • Get in touch

Call us toll free 0800 1800 900

Find us on Map
graham@brandstar.co.uk
Login

Login
Eat yourself Brilliant Eat yourself Brilliant
  • Home
  • About
  • Larder
    • What We Eat
  • Library
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Recipes
    • Videos
  • Gym
    • Competitive Sport
    • Motivation
  • Services
  • Get in touch

Dietary risks in young elite swimmers.

Home Gym Competitive Sport Dietary risks in young elite swimmers.
Dietary risks in young elite swimmers.

Dietary risks in young elite swimmers.

Nov 7, 2013 | Posted by Tilly Spurr | Competitive Sport, Gym, Misc, What we eat | 1 comment |

This month a study has been published on the diet of teenaged swimmers, training and competing on UK Regional and National Development Squads [11]. The research found that although most nutrient needs were met, the swimmers had an average energy deficit of around 900Kcal a day and significant deficiencies in fibre, vitamin A, and selenium. It concluded that “this data would suggest that nutritional practices in this group of amateur swimmers were less than optimal when seeking to sustain peak performance”. Several studies of college-age elite swimmers have shown similar results with many running at an energy deficit and with diets typically too high in fat (over 35%), too low in carbohydrate (below 50%) and a deficient in several micronutrients, including calcium, zinc, and iron [6-9].

How do you feed a young competitive swimmer?

Usually when we look at sports nutrition, the staring point is to look at the basic diet and to compare the energy taken in, with the energy used. The biggest difference between an athletes needs and the general population being in the quantity of energy burnt. This calculation is complicated in swimmers however, as the energy requirement used for swimming at a given speed, varies considerably from person to person and depends on the skill of the swimmer, their economy of movement in the water, the stroke used and the effort applied [1] as well as their size, weight and shape. Very approximately the energy costs of swimming range from 5Kcal/min for a recreational backstroker/breaststroker or 11Kcal/min for  a recreational freestyle swimmer to 23Kcal/min for a competitive trained swimmer at full speed in any stroke. Research in competitive adult swimmers has shown daily energy usages of between 25% & 100% higher than comparable non-swimmers with burns of around 525Kcal/hr. This energy demand must be matched by a balanced diet if performance is to be optimised and the body allowed to recover properly after each session [2-4].

Even within the ‘Long Term Athlete Development’ frame work, because swimming is an early specialisation sport, it is not uncommon for swimmers in their teens to have similar training commitments to elite adult swimmers [10]. Given that adolescence is a time of increased nutritional demands to meet growth, as well as a time when parents begin to have less control over what is eaten, maintaining a balanced dietary intake may be especially problematic in adolescent swimmers [5].

Swimming and immunity

Several researchers have studied the link between training and immunity in swimmers.  Recently, Rama (2012) studied elite swimmers’ immunity during an entire season from September to April and looking at the incidence of upper respiratory symptoms and found that 67% of upper respiratory symptoms clustered around higher training loads in the elite swimmers [12].   Additionally, as training load increased during the build and intense periods, measures of natural immunity decreased and never returned to pre-season levels. As a nutritionalist what is interesting to me is how many of the minerals and vitamins found to be deficient in college-age and teenaged swimmers are also ones that are specifically linked to immunity.  Vitamin A, Zinc and Selenium are all known to have important roles in immune function and selenium supplementation has actually been found to improve blood markers for immunity in swimmers [13].

Advice

Care should be taken that young competitive swimmers are eating enough food to meet their energy requirements and that they eat a balanced diet that contains enough fibre, minerals and vitamins. Knowing how much energy a swimmer is burning during training is notably hard and training often disrupts meal times but special care should be taken to ensure levels of key nutrients are available. particularly those important for immune function. Please contact me if you would like to discuss your diet and how it can be adjusted to fit in with your training commitments.

 

[1] Inge & Brukner 1986. Food For Sport : A nutrition guide for sportsmen, sportswomen, coaches and parents. Kingswood Press

[2] Berning, J.R., Troup, J.P., VanHandel, P.J., Daniels, J. and Daniels, N. (1991) The nutritional habits of young ado- lescent swimmers. International Journal of Sports Nutri- tion, 1, 240-248.

[3] Hawley, J.A. and Williams, M.M. (1991) Dietary intakes of age-group swimmers. British Journal of Sports Medi- cine, 25, 154-158. doi:10.1136/bjsm.25.3.154

[4] Rodriguez, N.R., DiMarco, N.M. and Langley, S. (2009) Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and athletic performance. Journal of the Ameri- can Dietetic Association, 109, 509-527. doi:10.1016/j.jada.2009.01.005

[5] Story, M. and Stang, J. (2005) Nutrition needs of adoles- cents. In: Stang, J. and Story, M., Eds., Guidelines for Adolescent Nutrition Services, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 21-34.

[6] Farajian, P., Kavouras, S.A., Yannakoulia, M. and Si- dossis, L.S. (2004) Dietary intake and nutritional prac- tices of elite Greek aquatic athletes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 14, 574-585.

[7] Kabasakalis, A., Kalitsis, G., Tsalis, G. and Mougios, V. (2007) Imbalanced nutrition of top-level swimmers. In- ternational Journal of Sports Medicine, 28, 780-786. doi:10.1055/s-2007-964907

[8] Paschoal, V.C.P. and Amancio, O.M.S. (2004) Nutritional status of Brazilian elite swimmers. International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 14, 81-94.

[9] De Carvalho et al 2012, Evidence of zinc deficiency in competitive swimmers. Nutrition 28 (11-12), 1127-31

[10] Balyi, Way & Higgs 2013 – LTAD. Human Kinetics

[11] Russell, Lali, Cockburn, Rumbold 2013 – Dietary analysis of regional and national level youth swimmers in the UK. Br J Sports Med 47(17)e4 dpi 10.1136/bjsports-2013-093073.50

[12] Rama et al 2012 Changes in natural killer cell subpopulations over a winter training season in elite swimmers. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Apr;113(4):859-68. doi: 10.1007/s00421-012-2490-x. Epub 2012 Sep 19.

[13] Drăgan et al 2007.  Studies regarding the antioxidant effects of selenium on top swimmers.  Rev Roum Physiol. 1990 Jan-Mar;27(1):15-20.

Tags: competitive swimmersdietelite swimmersenergy useimmunitynutritionswim training
1 Comment
0
Share

About Tilly Spurr

Tilly is a nutritional scientist and performance coach who works with clients, who are looking for an extra edge or  increased vitality to succeed. After 12 years working in the financial sector, Tilly has spent the last fifteen years studying medical and performance nutrition with a special interest in cognition, childhood development and adolescence. As a mentor and coach she works in schools and companies consulting on how to build resistance and manage stress with diet. Translating the latest research she aims to give an insight into the simple, achievable, scientifically based changes that can transform clients’ lives.

You also might be interested in

Protein Supplements and Shakes for muscle building in adolescence.

Protein Supplements and Shakes for muscle building in adolescence.

Feb 24, 2022

ARE PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS SUITABLE FOR TEENAGERS? In 2015 I wrote[...]

Importance of your gut for performance – What GCSE and A-Level Biology doesn’t tell you

Importance of your gut for performance – What GCSE and A-Level Biology doesn’t tell you

Mar 17, 2015

The majority of GCSE and A Level syllabuses cover digestion[...]

One more reason to get a good night’s sleep……

One more reason to get a good night’s sleep……

Oct 22, 2014

We spend about a third of our lives asleep but[...]

1 Comment

Leave your reply.

Leave a Reply

Your email is safe with us.
Cancel Reply

Categories

  • Book Reviews
  • Competitive Sport
  • Getting Started
  • Gym
  • How we eat
  • Interviews
  • Larder
  • Library
  • Misc
  • Motivation
  • Recipes
  • Understanding food labelling
  • Video's
  • What we eat

Tags

adolescent behaviour brain breakfast business cancer change cognition diet eggs energy use exercise food fruit getting started Granola health honey maple syrup minerals motivation nutrition nuts oats Olympics performance phytonutrients protein revision Running seeds sleep snack sport sports sports nutrition stress sugar Swim swim training team sports teenagers tennis training vitamins

Contact Larder & Gym

Get in touch! Send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Send Message

Site Pages

  • About
  • Get in touch
  • Gym
    • Competitive Sport
    • Motivation
  • Home
  • Larder
    • What We Eat
  • Library
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Recipes
    • Videos
  • Services

Latest Posts

  • Protein Supplements and Shakes for muscle building in adolescence. February 24th, 2022
  • Are there Good and Bad foods? A Sports Perspective. August 27th, 2019
  • Matt Walker : Sleep is your superpower May 12th, 2019
  • Is it possible to reduce injury risk by eating M&S Percy Pigs?. January 2nd, 2019
  • Netball Nutrition August 29th, 2018
  • Be the best you can be : Top Nutrition tips for exam success. May 6th, 2018
  • Coffee Shop Nutrition : How to Fuel and Recover in UK’s Cafes May 5th, 2018
  • Book Review – Roar by Stacy T. Sims PhD August 12th, 2017
  • EAT YOURSELF BRILLIANT – Sport Nutrition and Activity Survey April 28th, 2017

Larder & Gym Tags

adolescent behaviour brain breakfast business cancer change cognition diet eggs energy use exercise food fruit getting started Granola health honey maple syrup minerals motivation nutrition nuts oats Olympics performance phytonutrients protein revision Running seeds sleep snack sport sports sports nutrition stress sugar Swim swim training team sports teenagers tennis training vitamins

Latest Tweets

  • RT  @bballengland : 📢 Calling UK secondary teachers - NBA in the Classroom is here! Teach your 11-16s key life skills from money management…
  • 2 days ago
  • Great seminar by  @UKSCA  The Female Athlete. Lots to think about and take into account. #alwayslearning https://t.co/OtYGDjDQ2y
  • 2 days ago
  • RT  @sam_s_cooke : Want to get a good head start in the esports space? Come and work with us this summer! Any shares or recommendations app…
  • 5 days ago
  • RT  @PRumbold : PhD opportunity available  @NU_SENutr  with Dr Marc Briggs - Optimising Sport Nutrition Practices in Academy Football, please g…
  • 2 weeks ago

Follow @EatBrilliant

© 2022 · Tilly Spurr @ Eat Yourself Brilliant. Website built by Brandstar UK Limited Theme by HB-Themes.

  • Home
  • About
  • Larder
    • What We Eat
  • Library
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Recipes
    • Videos
  • Gym
    • Competitive Sport
    • Motivation
  • Services
  • Get in touch
Prev Next